Regent Park Focus

On Thursday October 31, 2013 the media lab became a Pre-Halloween hangout for kids waiting for darkness to proceed with the always-fun trick or treating. In the Media lab, a new chance at learning was made by having the youth make a blog and a Gmail, if they did not have one. As a new initiative youths that come to the media center on Thursday will be encouraged to post a new editorial in their blog before they are allowed to go on social media websites. This will serve as both a learning media experience and an outlet for stress and the daily troubles of being a youth. The youth were quite receptive to the blog and many wrote of their Halloween experience at their schools. The youth also talked about the history of Halloween as originally a Pagan tradition having changed over hundreds of years. We also talked about Halloween plans including haunted houses and the export of candy from the neighboring house to their pillowcases and shopping bags. The excitement could hardly be co...

Friday October 25 th 2013 the Diva Girls had a guest speaker come in to talk about resiliency, ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy, and stresses the youth face everyday. The guest speaker, Christine, asked girls to choose their top three stressors and it seemed as though the girls unanimously decided that the top three stressors were, drum roll; School, Parents and Drama. We explored these topics deeper to get a better sense of why these things stress the youth, for example, many of the youth felt that school held all the stressors in their life such as friend drama and the stress of failing/not doing well and having their parents be disappointed. Although some of the youth put on a tough face many of the other youths talked openly about daily stressors like not fitting in and even violence.    The Diva Girls kept an open mind and everyone participated as they learned about ways to deal with daily st...

The group reviewed two videos that dealt with stereotypes. The first video was specifically stereotypical behavior from Toronto Youth. In this video we saw three males in different scenarios, at the mall, the barbershop, to name a few places. We heard phrases like, “I’m out here bro,” “beef ting,” and one that seemed most comical, “ yo boom!” The group discussed how the video made them feel and shared past experiences that related to other more serious stereotypes they had faced. This then sparked conversation about social norms and the struggle to fit in vs. the struggle to disassociate from them.   The last video was a segment from the show: The talk. They did a spoof on stereotypes, playing upon stereotypes used against African Americans, Lesbians, Asians, and The British. This was in response to Sophia Vergara an actress on the television show Modern family, who plays the character “Gloria.” Many have complained that her character is a stereotype of a “hot fiery La...

Last week the youth of the Diva Girls program worked together to create a presentation on a culture that is different from their own. On Friday October 11th 2013 the Diva Girls explored many topics some of which we touched upon last week but didn’t quite understand, these topics included, an article on assisted suicide (which can be found below), the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and experiencing and appreciating others culture. With new girls arriving review an old topic gave the youths a chance to see what has been talked about before and expand the understanding of the girls who were left a little confused. When the youth came in we did a check in on how everyone was doing with their reading reward system and almost every youth in attendance had read a book/finished a book in that week. The group was also rewarded for filling out a important survey on where Regent Park community funding should go. If your child has not completed this survey and would like to they are availa...

On Friday October the 4 th the Diva Girls talked about many topics such as the Quebec Charter of Values and Teamwork. Two need segments were introduced the “What is happening this week?” and the reading initiative which rewards Diva Girl members when a book has been read. The youth were asked the question “how do they feel about Quebec’s Charter of Values?” after reading an article as linked below. The Charter of Values is a new decree from the Bloc Quebecois that restricts all religious symbols on public sector employees, such as hijabs, large crosses, etc. The group, although young, spoke volumes touching on subjects like human rights, the charter of rights and freedoms and law making in Canada. The youth came to an agreement that not only was the Charter of Values un-Canadian but also against human rights. The Diva Girls also had time to think about teamwork and what it meant to be a team both in the community, at home and in the world. Split into two groups the youth ...

Today was an exciting day at the centre. We had an amazing special guest by the name of Manal Azar visit Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre. She’s a media professional with over 15 years of experience in the media industry. Even her father worked in media. She spoke with us about her experiences working as a news reporter for an international news organization called Al Jazeera. She seemed to really enjoy her experience working with Al Jazeera, and praised them for their efforts to keep their news coverage neutral in opinion, even though many of the issues that the Arab news station covers are quite controversial In fact, the issues were so controversial sometimes that the U.S. government had refused to allow Al Jazeera to open a headquarters in the United States. They eventually did though. One of the most controversial news stories offered by Al Jazeera was an interview done with the late Osama bin Laden. Manal remarked how strange it was that the news organization wa...

Today we had a really interactive workshop/ discussion regarding sexual harassment, otherwise known as rape. Erin, producer of The Youth and the Law Show, led the discussion. Everyone at Focus provided great input and asked excellent questions that further improved the discussion content. Erin taught us what is considered rape and what isn't as well as methods to defend yourself legally and the actions you can take if the act has been committed against you. One thing that made the discussion really interesting was the use of real examples that happened of different types of sexual harassment cases. Overall, today was a great discussion and there was great input from everyone about their positions and perspective on this subject.   - Nedda

My name is Alice Yan, and I am a volunteer at Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre. Today, I assisted in filming a documentary about what goes on behind the scenes at Regent Park Focus. It was a unique experience for me, as I had never been on camera interviewing people before. Not only did I improve my communication skills, but I also realized how fortunate I was to have come across such a worthwhile volunteer opportunity. Filming the documentary was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it - experiencing new things is one reason why I love coming to Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre. - Alice Yan

Today we filmed the second episode of The-She-World and it was a lot of fun. I was director and co-producer so I was in charge of assigning roles to crew members such as cameramen, audio crew and a switcher. We had an awesome guest on the show who had just as much fun as us on set. Everything went pretty smoothly. I love being director because I feel in charge of everything going on within the studio and I get to make the calls on different types of angles and more. I'm excited to film The-She-World again next week. - Nedda

Today, the second of August was my second day here at the Regent Park Youth Focus Media Arts Centre. One word to sum the day up? Hmmm... Unfortunately, one word will not do. After all, the day was an exciting one - full of wonderful opportunities. I began the day with great excitement as I was to go on a tour of the CBC. The group that went on this tour, was a fairly small but enthusiastic group which consisted of Katherine, Pierce, Alice and myself along with our wonderful supervisor Ehsan, without whom this trip would not have been possible. We were a very enthusiastic group who got a tour of the CBC by an editor of the CBC himself. He took us to various places inside the building. It was an amazing experience as all of us got to learn a lot from this trip. The trip began at around 12:00 and it lasted till around 2:00. When the tour was over, we headed back to Regent Park Youth Media Arts Center. Other volunteers/ workers who were not with us on the CBC tour...

Today, we basically had to edit our radio shows so that they are prepared to be heard over the radio. Most of the recording editing wasn't as hard as it was repetitive. Cutting parts out and making some parts louder than others, that was pretty much radio editing in a gist. I make it sound boring but it's quite fun especially if you can play around with the effects.  The most exciting part of the day was doing a media campaign proportional photo shoot for The She World show that will be coming up soon. I got to take pics of Clara who is the host of the show and she even let me take pics with her which I have to edit soon and then they will go up on the show website, twitter page and facebook. I'm seriously excited to be a part of the up-coming show!  - Nedda

Today we were joined by 2 new youth participants and they seem to be enjoying the program so far which is great. Over the weekend the summer crew had a little bit of homework to do and that was to research and familiarize ourselves with the Trayvon Martin case as well as look at other examples of self defense cases that have taken place in Ontario. We're going to be producing a show meant to educate youth on law. Erin came back in for another visit today and we all discussed more on the topic as well as some cases that a few of us found in our research. Everybody discussed different examples of when self defense is no longer defense and the different between abuse and when the claim if applicable. It was a very good discussion but we're going to be saving the real passion for the production of the show, which will be a good one. All in all today was another good day at Regent Park Focus. Tresvonne Rose-Wilson

The day started off for me by editing the news cast on Nelson Mandela Day which took place at Nelson Mandela Park Public School and on the African Women Acting. Then I worked with Alice and Jeff to help me write my environmental PSA script. Then the group came together and we did a workshop in which we had to look for a book, TV show, Movie and CD album in the top 5 released by First Nations or racialised people.Tomorrow we are going to visit CBC, looking forward to that.

Today I had the opportunity to host my first hour long radio show on Radio Regent. I had prepped, researched and rehearsed for this day for two weeks! I was very excited as the topic was something I am passionate about - health and fitness. My show consisted of tackling health myths, discussing my journey with eating right and exercise - how it changed my life and we even had a special guest Angela Olah who is a hardcore bootcamp coach!  I was nervous about the execution but I had a ton of support from co-workers and everything went great! What I learned from hosting a radio show is to not laugh a lot because when I started editing the content my laugh was pretty annoying. Just kidding, what I actually learned was time management is very important in radio. I did mess up a few times but I was fortunate enough to edit it before it went on air.  This experience has motivated me to do another radio show and hopefully another one on health and fitness! ...

So today we basically had to edit our radio shows so that they are prepared to be heard over radio. Most of the recording editing wasn't as hard as it was repetative. Cutting parts out and making some parts louder than others, that was pretty much radio editing in a gist. I make it sound boring but it's quite fun especially if you can play around with the effects.  The most exciting part of the day was doing a media campaign proportional photo shoot for The She World show that will be coming up soon. I got to take pics of Clara who is the host of the show and she even let me take pics with her which I have to edit soon and then they will go up on the show website, twitter page and facebook. I'm seriously excited to be a part of the up-coming show!!!

Today I had a wonderful experience reporting at the Nelson Mandela Park Public school celebrating the icon's 95th birthday. The event was filled with local celebrities like former Toronto's Argonauts quarterback Damen Allen, broadcast journalist Indira Naidoo-Harris (CBC, CTV, TVO, OMNI, NBC, and PBS) and internationally known jazz singer Amanda Martinez - who performed at the 2010 World Cup series in South Africa. The experience was one of a kind as this was my first official newscast for RPTV. A thank you shout out to my mentor Clint, who gave me the opportunity and had faith in me for doing this project. It was a three "man" team with Clint, Issac and I and we did a wonderful job interviewing all the local celebrities under extreme heat. Yay to us!

Today this morning started off with an independent work period. Working on either editing video, radio shows, or PSA. In the afternoon Joanne, Clint, Nedda, and I went to do an interview at a BBQ held by the Aboriginal Women's Resource Centre. The person I interview gave us info on how the centre came to formation, it"s purpose and the impact it has make on the people that go there. Then we came back to Regent Park Focus to help Vena with her PSA along with Trevonne and Katelyn. After that the whole group gathered together for a workshop on culture, what it is, what it does and if Canada has a culture. We ended off planning for our TV shows in August. Looking forward for whatever else we got in store for the future.

The day started off with us doing research on the subject of our radio project and start planning on what were going to talk about for our assigned newscast. After that we got to try out all of the "behind the scenes" stuff like director, camera operators, sound tech people, and even got to be on set! It was really cool but I thought that the directing part was really confusing because you, as the director, are controlling everything that goes down behind the scenes and even in front of the cameras! So you have to pay attention to  every one of those things and make sure it is as presentable as possible. So because of that I thought it was challenging but a very interesting experience.   - Pierce

Today was a day buzzing with excitement at Regent Park Focus Youth Media Arts Centre (RPFYMAC). The youth started off the day by planning out their radio shows coming up in the next week. They were especially focused on researching information for their PSAs (Public Service Announcements) in the works. The PSAs are about harmful household chemicals found in everyday products, such as hand sanitizers, hand soap, deodorant, hair products, and many others. They researched information on the harmful effects of the chemicals, which products they could be found in, and product alternatives free of the harmful substances. They really showed an interest in wanting to provide people with the best information possible on the subject, and leave people feeling empowered about how to protect themselves. Later on, after the lunch break, we moved onto the fun experience of being media executives at RPFYMAC, where we listened to 3 different TV show pitches for RPTV. Each of the pitches ...

So today we had a task were we had went out in to the community to interview people about anything of our choice. We were split in to two groups of four. My group choice to go to Yonge Street Mission to interview them about the summer programs that are going on. During that adventure on going to the Christian community center we had to make a detour and speak to the communications person to get the approval to start filming. Then when we began the filming we started to notice the fact that we never have a battery pack. so then in the middle of the interview the camera died, but we continued. - Cassandra  

The first day of the summer program at Regent Park Focus was a good start to the summer. There are a few new faces which is always good. We started off with an orientation of what this years summer program is all about and we began training right away. I've been part of focus for a while but it was refreshing to be given a "how to" camera tutorial again by Eman. Ehsan gave everybody a run down of how to use the soundboard for  Radio Regents internet radio program and I think the new staff enjoyed what bit the best. I can tell this summer is going to be a fun one with Focus and I'm excited to start new video projects and produce my own News Segments and Radio Shows. The day was a good day and it's only getting started. Tresvonne Rose-Wilson

Today Isaac, Pierce, Ree and myself went out to Daniel's Spectrum to interview a few people there about what the venue had to offer to the community and why it's such a special place. We spoke with Elwood, the Regent Park Film Festival coordinator, along with Christie the Regent Park School of Music director and Timothy the Art Heart Media Center coordinator and director. These people spoke to us about why the building and the programs that it offers are great. We personally got the opportunity to become comfortable speaking with strangers and organizing meaningful interview sessions along with camera and mic setup and the execution of the entire interview. It was an amazing experience that I learned a lot from in terms of equipment setup, proper interview etiquette along with useable footage. I would have preferred a longer session to complete this filming task for next time, but overall it was incredibly fun! - Nedda

Today we did a workshop on how to use Adobe Premiere Software to edit the footage of the interviews we did yesterday. We learned how to use all sorts of tools on the software to adjust the footage to flow better and to make a story out of the random footage we shot. It was incredibly informative and by the end of the workshop i felt very comfortable being able to teach this software to others. Both Tyrone and Emmanuel were supportive during the process and the learning experience was a lot of fun. I like the time length of this workshop and would love for other workshops to be just as long in order to be more effective. All in all this workshop was the most fun and informative.    - Nedda

Today we had the opportunity to participate in a 101 TV/Video workshop with Emmanuel K. Regent Park Focus' TV Coordinator. Throughout the session, Emmanuel showed us the different cameras and microphones the program uses to record and broadcast its' shows. He taught us the crucial basics such as putting in the proper battery, which microphone line to use and the importance of audio - no matter how bad the video is. He was very knowledgeable and funny - something instructors must have to keep their group learning and in focus. The 101 workshop was a great learning experience for first timers as they got hands on experience and a good reminders to those that already had experience in the field. -Vina

Today the summer staff team re-watched footage that we had all shot on Wednesday and Thursday and we learned about video logging. Unfortunately there was a technical difficulty with the camera that my team had been using so we just got a lot of blank space on our tape. It's all good though, mistakes happen. Later in the afternoon, Tyrone taught us how to use Premiere Pro, a video editing program. After that the rest of the afternoon was pretty much dedicated towards editing practice and adding little touches to our videos. Over all this has been a productive week. Tresvonne Rose-Wilson

Today Emanuel led an incredibly useful workshop regarding the proper way to interview people in terms of questions, media release forms, and the type of camera angles taken for the interview. He mentioned the importance of interviewing people who are important in events as well as having different roles in the event as opposed to interviewing everyone who have a similar role in an event. For example, if a news story is covering the Regent Park Soccer League it would be better to interview soccer layers, and their parents as well as referees and coaches as opposed to just all soccer players. This allows for a broader perspective and better coverage of the story as well as making it more interesting. Another important point Emanuel brought up was to cover the 5 W's and H. This answers all the questions that viewers could have about the news story and makes the story more informative. I thought the workshop was incredibly informative and a good review since I have...

Pierce, Issac and I had an opportunity to film Regent Park's first Farmers Market located beside the Daniel Spectrum building. We were fortunate enough to make it on time for the official ribbon cutting and caught an interview with Daneil Spectrum's Vice President Martin Blake. The turnout to the event was beyond expectation and it was really nice to see Regent Park supporting local, organic food vendors. Coming from a health perspective, I was really glad to see that the people of Regent Park made smarter choices when it comes down to produce - that they are supporting local produce and making healthier dietary choices. It was a very fun experience to be at Regent Park's first Farmers Market! - Vina

This morning I started off editing the PSA on The Daniel Spectrum with Needa, Shaun and Pierce. I then went with Pierce to get cut away shots for PSA with Pierce at the Spectrum, Nelson Mandela Park and Lord Duffrin. In the afternoon we started our first workshop with the youth that come in the afternoon. we started things off with an ice breaker game, gave them a tour around Focus then started our the first camera workshop with them. We showed them how to set up a camera and tripod, put the battery and tape in and different types of angles. The youth got to participate by focusing the shot in the camera to what they wanted and telling everyone what the shot was.  - Summer Volunteer

Blog: Today Emmanuel taught me and a bunch o other staff how to work the cameras and do stuff like add effects. Some new things I learned is that you can only control the cameras from inside the studio and not from the camera itself. He showed us all the basics of how to operate the camera. (Zooming, fade effects, removing from tripod etc...) Another thing he showed us is how to enable/disable the microphones and that while you're operating the cameras, the director gives you specific directions through a microphone. So I thought it was an over all cool experience and am looking forward to the up coming weeks.  - Pierce

Tuesday July 2, 2013 on Cath da Flava Radio we started off with a moment of silence for the 19 firefighters that died in the wild fire in Arizona. Then we kicked off the show talking about the 16 year old boy who got stabbed on Ashbridges Bay during Canada Day. We (Tyrone, Emmanuel, and Clint) all came to agreement that youth in Toronto are getting more out of control. The next topic was on how since this years Superbowl 27 football players have been arrested, we touch on Aaron Hernandez case how he could face 25 to life if found guilty. We talked about how youth are idolized by these athletes and how those same athletes get into trouble with the law. On a high note our last topic was on Anthony Bennett, how he's from Toronto and being the first draft pick for the NBA.  - Isaac

For the last five weeks the Diva’s at Regent Park Focus Arts Media Center have been working on “Creating a Digital (Self) Portrait” using Internet and Photoshop in a creative way, building some artistic and technical skills, learning about artists, photography and digital art. Some faces … The creation of a digital (Self) portrait consisted of taking digital portrait photographs, manipulating them in Photoshop, researching artist they like and choose a “face frame” for their portrait inspired by a painting, photograph or illustration that communicated in a unique way their personal idea of (future) self. The final digital composition was to express in a symbolic and/or more representational way their individual story or vision. The choice of images, colours, shapes, arrangement, manipulation, etc. had to be unique expression of how they see themselves, or tell a (personal) story that is meaningful to them, and/or anything else they would like to represent. The Process Exa...

This week, the boyz2men met up again on Wednesday. The boys continued to be working on their ‘ photo shopped ’ self portraits. Some of the boys learned to shade using oil pastels, and made excellent colored drawings of outfits and mystical creatures, such as a fire face dragon. As usual we took a break for some delicious sandwiches and snacks as treats for the boys' participation. After that we then sat around the table as a whole to do some quick exercises in which we did mark-making drawings to how we feel with certain music. We then collaged the mark-making drawings to make a background for the self portrait. -Hareem Qureshy

Last Wednesday, the boyz2men group started a new workshop, with an artist-teacher, Hareem. The project was, or rather is, for the boyz to take a quick peek into the future and create a photoshopped self portrait of how they see themselves at the age of 30.   Last week, we started some quick drawings individually (which were very well made) of our role-models, and then of our selves. Along with our future goals, we discussed personality traits we aspire to have. Mustafa’s role model was his friend, who play soccer with him, where as Lam had a bit of pinpointing one specific role model, but could say with absolute surety that when he grew up and got rich, he would not become snooty- and would always share what he has, and always donate to those in need. After a yummy snack, the boys looked at some examples similar to what is expected of them. We then moved into the computer lab, and begun our self portraits. It was here that the aspiring entrepreneurial CEO, Basboos, began digit...

The Divas today were greeted by Angelina Stoikova. She’s a student currently attending OCAD and she has an excellent project in store for the Divas.   The Divas were given the task to create a digital self portrait. They’re inspected to research and select an artist that inspires them, and come up with either a portrait or vision that relates to the artist. Researching the artist will give some of the Divas a chance to learn about art’s history and where certain fashion ideas came from.   They also took photographs of themselves to tell a story about how they view themselves visually.   The point to that is to give the Divas a chance to think about how they may see themselves in the future. This task allows the Divas the opportunity to practice artistic and technical skills that they may or may not already have.   Overall many of the girls enjoyed today’s activity by expressing excitement and joy while taking photos of one another. This was just the first day o...

If you missed the new radio segment, Girl Talk , then this post is for you. Hosts Gina, Whitney and Victoria speak on different social issues with hints of fashion, celebrities and boy talk. The first airing of the show was on Tuesday, April 30, 2013, which was just earlier this week. Their first topic was on a serious note with eating disorders, particularly in teens. Although the topic is well-heard issue, the girls used it positively to explain the facts on the disorder, and tips and suggestions that people could use if they have friends they know that are struggling with eating disorders. For example, they spoke about the stigma with men not having the same care or programs that women have when they enter rehabilitation clinics. The girls offered their own opinions on the subject matter and insight to what it’s like to be in high school, dealing with the pressures and stress of society. The girls also did a television piece following the live radio promoting the show Girl Talk ...

Earlier this week I facilitated a workshop with young participants of FOCUS in regards to their hopes for the future and thoughts on their heroes. With materials such as paint, glue, bristol boards and writing materials the girls were asked to currate a multi media piece that answered and expressed a particular set of questions set out for them. Within these questions were inquiries such as what the girls hoped to be when they were older, why was this their choice of career, who was their hero and what had this individual done that held such significance to them. Majority of the girls worked on the set of questions relayed to what they hoped to be when they were older.   Some of the answers to these questions included doctor and curer of cancer. Among those that chose to do their work on the hero collage was a little girl who created a work of art dedicated to her hero. This hero, also her best friend, had lost her brother in a shooting in Regent Park last year. Some of the st...

On Monday May 28th, 2013 and Wednesday May 30th, 2013, Gina Brockerville, Victoria Mascarenhas, and Whitney Farrell did a workshop with Client. We made two pictures merge into one to make an eco-friendly, environmental poster. We learned how to resize, transform, copy, layer, merge, discolouration, and other important techniques in Photoshop and InDesign. Learning techniques and skills from Photoshop and InDesign was amazing. I could merge two photos together and still distinctly see the photos separately. We did that three times in order to make three different pictures. We then took those three pictures and then make another huge poster on InDesign. We also added four triangles in a rectangle, and placed the pictures in them. Then added a circle in the middle and placed a recycle symbol in it. Lastly, we put the words “Bring The Green Inside” on our poster to make it stand out more. This edit will help me in the future because I wanted to do photography and graphic design. ...

If you missed the new radio segment, Girl Talk , then this post is for you. Hosts Gina, Whitney and Victoria speak on different social issues with hints of fashion, celebrities and boy talk. The first airing of the show was on Tuesday, April 30, 2013, which was just earlier this week. Their first topic was on a serious note with eating disorders, particularly in teens. Although the topic is well-heard issue, the girls used it positively to explain the facts on the disorder, and tips and suggestions that people could use if they have friends they know that are struggling with eating disorders. For example, they spoke about the stigma with men not having the same care or programs that women have when they enter rehabilitation clinics. The girls offered their own opinions on the subject matter and insight to what it’s like to be in high school, dealing with the pressures and stress of society. The girls also did a television piece following the live radio promoting the show Girl Talk...

What is homophobia? It is a fear or Homophobia is an ever growing issue all across Canada and it is not something to be taken lightly. Although there is no law against homophobia, it is often not tolerated. But even though it is not tolerated, it is also often ignored, one example of this was in a Toronto school. A transgender student was isolated and asked to use a gender neutral bathroom, or the woman's bathroom. This student had transformed from female to male in his grade 10 year of high school and constantly changed schools hearing the same stories regarding the washroom situation, all teachers and principals would say "It's only temporary" but the situation would never change. You would assume that it would be the students that would be taking part in the homophobic "activities" but that is incorrect, often it would be the office that would isolate the student. At one school he was even asked to use an off-site bathroom because he did no...

Gina Brockerville and Victoria Mascarenhas hosted a radio show focused around high school life, and work life. The spoke about the difficulties of high school, such as finding where you belong, how much you grow as a person in high school, the difficulties and benefits of being in an all girls school. Throughout high school you come to know yourself on a whole other level, you become who you will be for the rest of your life, you learn who your friends are, who to trust and who not to trust, and you learn to be an independent person. Not all high school experiences the same, for Gina and Victoria whom are enrolled in an all girls school, it is much different than a student who is in a co-ed school.  Being in an all girls school they have learned that looks aren't everything and they have learned to be confident no matter what they wear and it has helped them be comfortable with who they are. Along with this helping them with their confidence, it has also effected the...

Victoria Mascarenhas, Gina Brockerville and Whitney Farrell produced a radio show. Our topic was about Mental Illness. We had four subtopics for Mental Illness. They were Suicide, Stress, Anxiety, and Depression. Each segment was about 15 minutes each. We discussed about some typical questions that people would not understand. We answered them and gave our own opinions about it. We also had three articles that had to do with Mental Illness. One of the articles discussed about Demi Lovato and how she went through a bipolar disorder, depression, etc. She went through a lot of struggles and we thought discussing about her story would help influence youth to step up and not suffer in silence anymore. The second article we discussed was about therapy in the wilderness. It helps youth become more open about their illnesses and to help them speak up about their struggles. The last article we discussed was about this 17 year old boy who committed suicide. His father was a pastor and o...

RPTV and RP60 Launches at Regent Park Focus Last week was monumental here at Regent Park Focus. We launched our very own television channel, RPTV! RPTV is a one-hour television show that will air on Rogers cable 10 for one hour a week. RPTV is a community operated and owned television channel. In other words, the community gets a say in what content is created and showcased on RPTV! The vision of RPTV is that the youth and residents of Regent Park get an opportunity to learn about television broadcasting, as well as get the opportunity to learn how to produce their own content. It’s all about content being created by the community for the community. Not only did we get to launch an awesome TV channel for the Regent Park community, we also launched RP60. RP60 is our very own news and informational channel that will run 24-7 on channel 60 in the Regent Park area. Government representatives, Hon. Bob Rae, MP, Glen Murray, MPP, and Councillor Pam McConnell, were also in att...

Youths participating in todays March Break activity were met with a blank sheet of paper and multiple crayons. They were asked to fill the paper with different shapes and patterns making sure to press hard as they colored. Once they finished filling the paper with light colored patterns they were then asked to color over the whole paper using a black crayon. Once they were done, they used a sharp object, a pencil or a pen to scratch words and or designs into the black colored paper. Doing this allowed the light colors to pop through revealing a rainbow of colors below. Before moving on to the next activity the youth were asked why they chose the colors they did and the response consisted of “it stands out,” “no one else chose it,” “I like the colour,” “its unique,” and (of course) “its my favourite colour”. Some of the youth also chose to take a different spin on this activity. They ventured towards using a colour that was not black to colour over the light coloured pattern. ...